Wednesday, August 31, 2011

A River Ran Through It: In Search Of The Lost Rivers Of UCLA

The Militant Angeleno, as you may or may not know, is fond of retracing the lost waterways of Los Angeles. In April of 2008, he won several awards (okay, he didn't win any, but his blog sure got a lot of hits) on discovering Sacatela Creek, which ran from Los Feliz to Koreatown. A couple months later, he found Arroyo de los Jardines, which runs from Hollywood down to Mid-City, some of it still visible. He thought there weren't any more rivers to retrace...until now.

(Cue dramatic epic theme music...)

School may not be starting up for another few weeks at UCLA, but you're about to get your first Militant History 101 lesson (and you don't even have to be a registered student to learn!).

Whether you're an incoming freshman, a senior about to graduate next Spring, working on your master's or Ph.D, there's a lot you may know, but what you Bruins may not know is what lies under the very ground you walk on.

When UCLA ditched its original campus on Vermont Avenue (now Los Angeles City College) in the late 1920s for a much larger space, originally called the "Beverly Site," it left the bustle of the city for a quiet, serene meadow land near the foothills of Santa Monica Mountains.

The first freshman class at UCLA arrived to a campus of all but five buildings - the landmark Royce Hall being one of them - and a terrain of streams, creeks and arroyos.

Wait, what?

Yes, rivers once ran in Bruin Land. But where did they go?

There were four waterways that ran through the UCLA campus - all north from the Santa Monica Mountains down south eventually towards Ballona Creek - just like the other two rivers that The Militant retraced. There was (from west to east) the West Arroyo, Foothill Stream, Stone Canyon Creek and East Arroyo.

West Arroyo ran through where the student housing complexes now stand. Foothill Stream ran just west of Drake Stadium.

As for the East Arroyo, it was once the most prominent geological feature of the campus (seen towards the right of the above picture), a sunken ravine that somehow resembled a moat protecting the virtual castles of higher education. In fact, the main entrance to campus was once a bridge that went over the East Arroyo:

And here's what it looks like today (Royce Hall at the left is reference):

The arroyo was filled in in 1947 to make way for Dickson Court and more campus buildings, such as Schoenberg Hall.

So what happened to the bridge? Oh, it'sstill there. See the low wall running across the middle of the picture above? That's the bridge!

Yes, it's still recognized by the State of California as a functioning bridge, complete with weight limit restrictions (pictured left, ya rly) and periodic seismic inspections.

As for Stone Canyon Creek, it's still very much a creek, starting up in the Santa Monica Mountains, running down parallel to its emponymous road, making its presence in the front yards of more than a few Bel-Air homes.

On the UCLA campus, The Militant is proud to say, the creek still runs - albeit for just a little bit. Found sandwiched between Sunset Boulevard and the Anderson School of Management and hidden behind a layer of trees, lo and behold...you can still see the last vestige of the rivers of UCLA:

For even in the Summertime, the water still flows, just as it always has been, even before the university arrived here. Come see it for yourself sometime!

And then, just like that, the waters unceremoniously enter a storm drain (pictured right), never to reflect light again, at least until it gets dumped into a concrete channel just south of Westwood en route to Ballona Creek.

I attended University Elementary School on the UCLA campus, running alongside Sunset, and that had a creek running through it. No doubt it was man-made, but I wonder if it began life as one of the lost rivers?

Reverto: That is the same Stone Canyon Creek as shown in the blog post, the elementary school is a little more upstream than the Anderson School location The Militant found. It is definitely a natural creek, but probably channelized (like the Los Angeles River is)

Nice post! Thought you would want to know that the students at the Lab School (formerly UES) have been studying the Stone Canyon Creek, with the help of the Santa Monica Bay Restoration Commission and Santa Monica Baykeeper. They've also cleared weeds and planted some native plants along the banks of the creek:

I think they tell you about Dickson Court being filled in and the road actually being a bridge during one of the freshman orientation tours. But the tour guides made up so many lies and legends about UCLA buildings and landmarks that we didn't know what to believe. I always wondered about the little creek running behind Anderson along Sunset. It's one of those semi-hidden spots of campus I love so much.

Manifesto

A 100% Los Angeles native, the Militant Angeleno lives in a compound in an unspecified neighborhood of central Los Angeles. His life consists largely of his various adventures around the city, which are documented in this blog. The Militant is also multi-modal and is not dependent on any one mode of transportation, although he is most known for traversing the City's streets via bicycle. The Militant can be described as part-activist, part-superhero, giving the voice to the voiceless and silencing those who just plain whine too much. Partly because of his selfless motives, he prefers to refer to himself in the third person, as the first-person is too self-centered. The Militant is anonymous and goes to great lengths to protect his identity and is aided and protected by an unspecified number of operatives, who are sworn to secrecy as to his identity. Most important, the Militant's ultimate objective is not to be the Militant Angeleno, but to empower and enlighten other Angelenos, so that they may be militants in their own right. Oh yeah, Go Dodgers!

Contacting The Militant Angeleno

Do you have a question for the Militant Angeleno (sorry, all questions regarding his identity will be ignored)? Would you like to send hate mail (or love mail, even)? Do you want to know how you can join the Angeleno Militia? Here's how!